Pipette tips are ubiquitous tools of many research laboratories and of facilities in which small volumes of liquid are handled. Liquid dispensers sometimes are manually operated by a user and sometimes are automated. Liquid dispensing devices often are operated in conjunction with pipette tips, where pipette tips are sealingly connected to the dispensing device, the dispensing device applies negative or positive pressure in the interior of the pipette tips and liquid enters or exits, respectively, the pipette tips.
As laboratory and clinical technologies advance, an increasing number of medical and laboratory procedures are performed by high throughput manual and automated processes. Many of these laboratory or clinical processes and procedures are carried out using pipette tips in conjunction with multichannel dispensing devices (e.g., also known as multichannel pipettors). Multichannel dispensers are currently available with as few as 4 channels (e.g., hand held manually operated pipette) or sometimes as many as 1536 channels (e.g., automated high throughput biological workstations).
Pipette tips generally are held in a tray, rack or holder, and oriented substantially vertically for presentation of the tips for use by an operator. The tips are held in a card of the rack in a vertical orientation such that the proximal portion of the pipette tips can be engaged by the dispenser nozzles or channels. A rack often comprises four sides, and optionally contains a grid structure within the body that confers rigidity to the rack component. Pipette tip racks, available in configurations that can hold from approximately about 96 to about 1536 tips, can be purchased commercially. Each pipette tip often is separated in a rack, and can be utilized individually or in a group of other pipette tips. Pipette tips often are manually loaded into rack or holder devices for sterilization, storage, and ultimate use.